Happy Victoria Day long weekend. 11 more sleeps until signing day and day one of mourning for us Winnipeg Jets fans. And if you were cheering for the evil Knights led by count Dracula Bettman…what is wrong with you. Aren’t you Canadian?

Back to CJFL football and more specifically BCFC football. With signing day just about upon us, this might be a good time to send a reminder to players, parents AND coaches about how exactly the signing commitments in the CJFL work.

Every season there are at least a few players looking to move from one team to another. Some times its due to a legitimate relocation of cities for work, school or other reasons. Other times, more often than not, in reality it’s to move to perceived “greener pastures” for the player. For years a player that was denied a release by his club had the option to appeal to the conference to have his release request granted. I can’t remember when exactly, but 5-7 years ago the teams in the BCFC agreed to do away with the release appeal process. The thought among the teams was that players were being coached by teams on what to say to convince the conference to grant a release. In some cases, players went so far as to register for classes at a post secondary institution to get a release and then drop out from the school. The appeal process that was in place to assist a player who had a legitimate reason to leave his current team was being exploited by teams for their own gain.

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that in my previous life as a director with the Okanagan Sun I felt that players should have free reign to move after the season to whatever team, for whatever reason. In the mid 90’s when the Sun had a 9 year run atop the BCFC its wasn’t uncommon for players from other teams to want to play in the Okanagan. I felt their reasons were justified because in my ivory tower I could look down at the rest of the BCFC and say with complete confidence (arrogance) that our club offered a better situation for players and if they wanted to move to Kelowna they should have that right. After all, players pay a registration fee to play, let them play where they want.

In the past 3-4 years, my narrow eyes have been opened a bit and I’ve learned that every club in the BCFC has it’s own unique challenges. Fielding a team of 50-80 players, many from out of town is no small feat. I’ve come to realize that while a player does pay a registration fee, it doesn’t begin to cover the cost of what a player is actually provided. Do some teams offer better value for the registration fee? I have no doubt some do, but the fragile nature of junior football is such that the value one teams offers a player compared to another team can change in an instant. And let’s not kid ourselves, that value is tied to a degree at least to the team’s chances to win a conference title.

This year there are again a small handful of players jockeying for a move out of their present city and in pretty much every case they are being encouraged by another team. They are being told what to say to their current team, and the players are being told how unfair it is that their team won’t release them. “It’s not right” another team says. “We would release you” the interfering team says.

I heard it again from a couple coaches in our conference recently that they would never keep a player on their roster that didn’t want to be there. And I get that argument, why would any coach want a player who didn’t want him? Cutting that player loose in theory only makes sense. But here is the issue, the teams that are being faced with the issue of a player wanting out are the ones that 9 times out of 10 are already struggling in the standings. Releasing one player who wants to move on makes them an easy mark for stronger teams to interfere with their roster. If they let one player go, what do they say to the next one who asks for a release?

Easy to release an average player who isn’t happy. It’s an entirely different situation when we are talking about a talent whose absence will not only hurt you, but worse beat you when he’s playing across the line of scrimmage.

Recently a coach approached me about player releases, coincidently he is in the enviable position of having a very good athlete wanting to leave one team to join his. He has argued that he would never keep a player who didn’t want to be there, I’d suggest that stance would vary from player to player and really doubt that if he were in the other teams shoes he would feel the same way, but that’s debatable.

But something else this coach said to me I don’t think is debatable, and it’s a point we can both agree on 100%. All our decisions in the BCFC should be about the players, this is about our athletes, they are why we invest the time we do. I’m of the opinion, and I think I’m in the majority on this, that if we allowed free movement between seasons it would harm our league overall. The strong teams would feast on the week and in 5 years we would be at risk of losing a team or two because their inability to gain any traction because their rebuilding is hampered by the loss of better players consistently setting them back.

If open player movement resulted in the loss of 1 or 2 teams…and the resulting loss of playing opportunity for 50 to 100 athletes, how is that good for our players?

This coach also threw the “It’s for the player” card at me in referring to the specific player who wants to join his team. “What about him?” the coach said to me in arguing his case.

To that I’d argue “What about the player already on your team from last year whose roster spot would arguably be in jeopardy?”

What about him?

The opinions expressed in Monday Musings are not necessarily those of the BCFC or its member teams.